Tower Hamlets Mayoral Election

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The voters of Tower Hamlets decided to fall in line with the other two East End boroughs and voted to have an elected Mayor back in May. The election will be on the 21st of October.

The Labour candidate (and likely winner) is the controversial Lutfur Rahman; a councillor in Spitalfields and the leader of the council from a factional coup in 2008 until he was ousted in another factional coup earlier this year. Attempts were made to block Rahman from the Labour shortlist, but he had good lawyers, made the ballot and won easily.

[Phony Moderate]

Will the youknowwhat party be fielding a candidate?

[Harry Hayfield]

The referendum result was:

Yes, I agree there should be an elected mayor 60,758 (60.39%)
No, I do not agree there should be an elected mayor 39,857 (39.61%)
Turnout: 62.09%

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The NEC has struck, and struck out Rahman as Labour candidate in response to yet another set of serious allegations. Helal Abbas (another Spitalfields councillor, and currently the leader of the council) has been selected by the NEC.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Rahman has filed papers to run as an independent. Which, of course, means that he is no longer a member of the Labour Party.

[Silent Hunter]

Rahman has filed papers to run as an independent. Which, of course, means that he is no longer a member of the Labour Party.

Ah... Tower Hamlets politics.

[Harry Hayfield]

Candidates Nominated
Helal Uddin Abbas (Labour)
Alan Duffell (Green)
John David MacLeod Griffiths (Liberal Democrats)
Neil Anthony King (Conservatives)
Lutfur Rahman (Independent)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Bump. Election is later this week.

Livingstone has been campaigning with Rahman. Technically he should be expelled from the Party as this is a clear breach of the rulebook, but I think that 'probably' won't happen. He's on the NEC himself, after all, amongst other things.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets (which basically covers the East End: Bethnal Green, Poplar, Stepney, Whitechapel and associated areas) voted in favour of having an elected mayor at a referendum on General Election day, and this is the result.  

In the early years of this century the East End of London was a centre of immigration, poverty and socialism.  It still is today, but in the early years of this century it was also one of the most densely populated areas of the country, with nine Members of Parliament between 1885 and 1918 (there are only two today).  Two famous Labour leaders, George Lansbury and Clement Attlee, both had their political base here, and Lansbury's name is still commemorated in the name of a ward here.  (His name also helped me to win £1000 on a quiz show last year .) In 1965 the boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney were fused into the new London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of David Boothroyd, there is an excellent archive of Tower Hamlets election results at http://www.election.demon.co.uk/thbc/thbc.html.  The first election to the council in 1964 saw Labour win 55 of the 60 seats, with the other 5 being split between three Communists (in St Mary's ward) and two Residents (in Poplar Millwall).  At the next two elections Labour itensified their grip until 1971 when they won all 60 seats (15 of them unopposed); they held all 60 seats in 1974 (13 unopposed).

In the 1980s the Liberal/SDP Alliance started to break the Labour stranglehold, making big gains in 1982 and taking control of the council in 1986 (All 26 Lab 24) despite polling only 41% to Labour's 44%.  The Lib Dem administration increased its majority in 1990, topping the poll and winning 30 seats to Labour's 20, but proved to be rather controversial, with allegations of racism; the following year the British National Party won their first ever council seat here, at a by-election in Millwall.  At the 1994 election Labour retook control with a landslide, winning 43 seats to the Lib Dems' 7.  Labour have controlled the council ever since, although it hasn't all been plain sailing for them.  

For one thing, the extensive redevelopment of the Docklands, and the building of expensive apartments on the riverfront, has led to a more middle-class demographic starting to move in to this very poor borough, particularly in the Isle of Dogs.  In a June 2002 by-election in Blackwall and Cubitt Town the Tories were just ten votes behind Labour, and in September 2004 in Millwall - the other Isle of Dogs ward - the Conservatives won their first council seat in Tower Hamlets for generations.  At the same time, following the war in Iraq the Respect party found a ready audience for their message among the borough's very large Muslim population.  In July 2004 they won their first ever council seat at a by-election in St Dunstans and Stepney Green ward, which was followed up by George Galloway gaining Bethnal Green and Bow, one of the borough's two parliamentary seats, from Labour at the 2005 general election.  Meanwhile the Labour administration under Cllr Helal Abbas (who sits for Spitalfields and Banglatown ward) became a favourite target of the satirical magazine Private Eye, partly thanks to some wacky politics and partly because of the strong links between senior Labour councillors and the East London Mosque.

All these political currents collided at the 2006 borough election, which Labour won by the narrowest of margins, winning 26 seats - a majority of one - to 12 for Respect, 7 for the Conservatives (who had a clean sweep in the Isle of Dogs and also won one of three seats in St Katharine's and Wapping ward on the riverfront) and 6 for the Liberal Democrats.  Respect lodged four legal challenges to the result, alleging postal vote fraud in three wards and that their candidates for St Katharine's and Wapping should not have had their nomination papers rejected; all four of them failed.  

The Respect opposition turned out to be rather fissiparous and quickly fell apart as the party disintegrated, several of the councillors ending up in the Labour group, now under the leadership of Cllr Lutfur Rahman (who also sits for Spitalfields and Banglatown ward).  The wacky politics continued, with Rahman first installing Lutfur Ali, a major East London Mosque figure with links to the Islamic Forum of Europe, as assistant chief exec, and then effectively forcing out the council's chief exec Martin Smith, basically for not being a Muslim.  After this the regional Labour party sat up and took notice of what was going on, and took over control of the candidate selection for the 2010 elections to try and reduce the Mosque's influence.

Labour restored a large majority at the May borough elections, winning 41 seats to 8 for the Conservatives, 1 Respect and 1 Lib Dem.  At the same time Labour took Bethnal Green and Bow back from Respect, with George Galloway standing in the borough's other parliamentary seat of Poplar and Limehouse and coming third behind Labour and the Conservatives; and a referendum on having an elected mayor passed by 60% to 40%.

This created a problem for Labour - candidate selection.  Lutfur Rahman desparately wanted to be the Labour candidate, and the regional Labour party desparately wanted him not to be their candidate.  The result was an increasingly desparate series of attempts to try to exclude Rahman from the selection, all of which were defeated in court.  Rahman eventually won the nomination easily, with the local London Assembly member John Biggs second and Abbas third.  However, Rahman was then deselected by Labour's National Executive Committee, ostensibly because of irregularities in his election expenses.  The NEC named Abbas as candidate in Rahman's place.  After a final legal challenge failed, Rahman is now standing as an Independent in the mayoral election.  He and eight of his friends on the council have been chucked out of the Labour Party, which means that the Rahmanite independents are presumably now the official opposition.  Rahman's campaign is endorsed by Respect who aren't fielding a candidate of their own.

The Conservatives have selected Neil King, a barrister from Wapping who was on the team from Oriel College, Oxford which reached the final of the 2000 series of the television programme University Challenge - this makes him a friend of a friend of mine.  The Lib Dem candidate for Mayor is John Griffiths and the Green Party has nominated Alan Duffell.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Magic.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

The campaign is getting dirty (would anyone who is surprised please put their hands up).  Local blog Trial by Jeory reports the following allegedly distributed by the Rahman campaign:

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Um...

[Phony Moderate]

Ah, the good old tactics of Tower Hamlets.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ah, the good old tactics of Tower Hamlets.

Eh, it's only since the rise of the Poujadists in the late 1970s that this sort of sh!t has been routine. Well, and before the 1950s as well, but the gap is too large to think of a tradition.

Anyone got any predictions for this? I've not got a clue.

[Hash]

Poujadistes?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Poujadistes?

The Tower Hamlets 'Liberals'.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Turnout is apparently very low. Rumours are that Rahman has probably won.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Rahman by a mile

Rahman 51.8, Abbas 25.0, Tory 11.9, LibDem 6.2, Green 5.1

What'll happen next in this long running soap opera? Will Rahman apply to rejoin Labour? Will he be allowed to? Will there be further defections on the council? Will there be legal challenges over the negative campaigning? Will Livingstone's reputation suffer? Tune in... probably before next week... for the next episode!

[Keystone Phil]

Isn't this where that pig was elected in 2005? If so, why didn't he run? He doesn't have much to do these days. Or did he get tired of the area and move back to Scotland?

[Хahar 🤔]

Isn't this where that pig was elected in 2005? If so, why didn't he run? He doesn't have much to do these days. Or did he get tired of the area and move back to Scotland?

Why would he run for Mayor?

[MaxQue]

Isn't this where that pig was elected in 2005? If so, why didn't he run? He doesn't have much to do these days. Or did he get tired of the area and move back to Scotland?

If you talk of Galloway, he is too busy going around the world to raise money for Hamas and suing Canada which refused to let him enter.
He went to court, and won entrance in Canada, so he is suing them to gain money, now.

[Keystone Phil]

Isn't this where that pig was elected in 2005? If so, why didn't he run? He doesn't have much to do these days. Or did he get tired of the area and move back to Scotland?

Why would he run for Mayor?

I said, "He doesn't have much to do these days." It was mainly me trying to find out what he's doing these days. Silly me. I should have known it was so stupid to ask if he'd run for Mayor. 

Isn't this where that pig was elected in 2005? If so, why didn't he run? He doesn't have much to do these days. Or did he get tired of the area and move back to Scotland?

If you talk of Galloway, he is too busy going around the world to raise money for Hamas and suing Canada which refused to let him enter.
He went to court, and won entrance in Canada, so he is suing them to gain money, now.

Thank you.

[Phony Moderate]

This was probably a fairly predictable result.

[minionofmidas]

Isn't this where that pig was elected in 2005? If so, why didn't he run? He doesn't have much to do these days. Or did he get tired of the area and move back to Scotland?

Why would he run for Mayor?

I said, "He doesn't have much to do these days." It was mainly me trying to find out what he's doing these days. Silly me. I should have known it was so stupid to ask if he'd run for Mayor. 

Mayors have even more work to do that MPs. The problem with Galloway was that he never liked his MP work.

Also, why would anyone vote for Galloway while Rahman was on the ballot?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Mayors have even more work to do that MPs. The problem with Galloway was that he never liked his MP work.

In theory; in practice they can farm most of their work out to their cabinet members and council officers. That has usually ended very badly though. Though even that would be far too much work for Galloway; it wasn't just his bizarre TV escapades and those stupid remarks after the bombings that caused his popularity to collapse.

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Exactly.